AGRICULTURE

Villagers acquainted with bee farming methods
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 19
A 10-day special camp is being held at Guru Nanak National College, Doraha under the guidance of programme officer Harwinder Kaur and Amarjeet Kaur. Yesterday a one-day-camp was organised at Lopon village (tehsil Samrala) to awaken villagers regarding the ill-effects of drugs and other intoxicants.

Dr Deepinder Singh and Prof Balwinder Pal Singh from Guru Gobind Singh Study Circle addressed the volunteers and villagers. Dr Deepinder Singh illustrated the ill-effects of the intoxicants on various organs of the body. He said these could cause mouth and neck cancer. In his discourse with villagers, he motivated them to take a firm decision and to have a strong will power so that they might keep these fatal things at bay. Prof Balwinder Pal Singh advised the villagers to stick to morals and take part in creative activities and make the state a beautiful and prosperous place to live in.

Dr Pardeep Chuneja , a renowned scientist from the Entomology Department, PAU Ludhiana, gave an enlightening and detailed lecture on bee-farming, describing the life-style and various characteristics of honey bees. He motivated the villagers to adopt this occupation as it was the most profitable of all other agriculture based ones. The initial investment cost in this occupation was quite low but the profit was high. It required minimum labour and time. Only regular and conscientious care of bees was required. Besides pursuing other activities, it could be adopted as a side profession. The farm where the bees were kept also became fragrant, pollution free and cheerful. Besides producing honey, the farmers could produce royal jelly, honey-bee wax, honey-bee gum etc which were quite useful and highly profitable commercial productions.

The villagers held placards in their hands regarding drugs, female foeticide, dowry and other such social evils and shouted slogans. The volunteers also visited door to door to conduct a survey regarding drug-addicts. Program officer Harwinder Kaur thanked the village dwellers and resource persons. She also advised the volunteers to take part in social service so that society could be reformed.

As most of the volunteers belonged to rural areas where dairy farming was one of the major occupations, a lecture on dairy farming was also organised so that the volunteers might acquire some useful knowledge regarding it and might be able to motivate others to adopt and run it successfully. The resource person was Dr Gagandeep Kaushal, Veterinary Officer, Civil Hospital , Kaddon. He enlightened the volunteers regarding various breeds of milch cattle, their characteristics and physical features, their care and upbringing, the feed to be given to them and other such things. He also described in detail various diseases of milch cattle and pet dogs and also the solutions and cures to their problems.

PAU scientist gets ICAR honour
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 19
A PAU scientist Dr Yog Raj Chanana, Head, Department of Horticulture, has been chosen as Emeritus Scientists by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi, in recognition of his meritorious work done in the field of fruit crops.

As an Emeritus Scientist, he will work on the project entitled,” Standardisation of rootstocks for sub-tropical peach and plum”.

Dr Chanana has made significant contributions in genetic resource management of fruits, selection of several improved varieties of peach, plum and papaya and also standardisation of their production technology.

He has developed a complete package of practices for the production of high-quality peaches.

He has been awarded Shri Hans Raj Pahwa Award, Shri G.L. Chadha Memorial Gold Medal and Gurcharan Singh Nihalsinghwala award. Dr Chanana is a Fellow of Horticultural Society of India. He is associated with many academic and professional societies.

Dr Chanana has guided 10 M.Sc . and 2 Ph.D. students in horticulture and has published 71 research papers, 60 magazine articles and 10 book chapters. He has participated in many national and international conferences.

From Schools & Colleges
NSS volunteers visit Dugri village
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 19
Under a 10-day NSS camp being organised at the SDP College for Women, Ludhiana, volunteers visited Dugri village and cleaned the parks today. They also conducted a survey of the area and took out an awareness rally about pollution of the canal water. The residents of the area appreciated the efforts of the volunteers being made under the guidance of president Balraj Bhasin, director S. Verma, Principal S. Bindal and programme officers S. Bhalla, Nivedita Arora and Sunita.

Ashiana, Vasudha Jain and Twinkle won the first, second and third prizes in the mehandi competition.

The volunteers were also given lessons in glass painting, statue painting, fabric painting and pot painting.

Vice-Principal of the college B. Ahuja also addressed the campers.

Lecture: On the 8th day of 10-day special NSS camp being organised by the NSS unit of Guru Nanak Girls College, a lecture was arranged on beauty aids.

Ms Baljeet Kaur gave tips to protect the skin from the scorching sun. She gave a demonstration on homemade face packs.

Ms Sonia trained volunteers in making flowers from organdie, stockings, pearls and chemicals. She also discussed various tie-and-dye techniques.

A session on dressing and self grooming was also held. A declamation contest on “Inner beauty and outer beauty” was also organised.

Ashwinder (BSc III), Prabhjot (BSc III), Manveen (BA I), Seepal (BSc II), Prabhjot (BSc III), Manveen (BA III), Sarita (BA I), Seepal (BSc II) and Sandeep (MA II) participated in the contest.

Poem recitation: A Hindi poem recitation competition was held for the KG section of Kundan Vidya Mandir, Civil Lines.

Ms Shivani (coordinator, Kidzee, Ludhiana) and Ms Mandeep Kaur (Kidzee) were the judges. Ms Annu Sehra, in charge of the KG section, along with the judges appreciated the children’s efforts and encouraged them.

In the LKG section, Sparsh (LKG-A), Somil Jenner (LKG-E) and Manya (LKG-D) got the consolation prizes.

In the UKG section, Taneesha Gaur (UKG-B), Naman Chibba (UKG-C), Vani Ahuja UKG-F and Arjun Puri UKG-A got the first, second, third and consolation prizes, respectively.

Magic show: KVM organised a magic show to make students recall the memories of bygone days. The show was enjoyed by the students of the classes I to V.

Mr S.C. Saxena, Principal, presided over the show. Ms Aruna Pawar, in charge of the higher section of the school, welcomed the famous magician, Mr Cunjama Murli.

The magician performed various tricks like converting the candles into flowers and umbrellas, multiplying bottles, paper bag production, milk magazine etc. He called some students on to the stage for performing various tricks and gave them tips in magic.

Ms Kavita Wadhwa, in charge of the primary section, extended a vote of thanks.

BCA I results: Students of Guru Nanak Girls College, Model Town, Ludhiana, have excelled in BCA I exam conducted by Panjab University.

Navsangeet Kaur topped the college by securing 82.9 per cent marks, whereas Upasana Arora with 78.3 and Anisha Goyal with 78.1 per cent marks got the second and the third positions, respectively.

Out of 39 students, 16 scored more than 70 per cent marks. Principal Dr Charanjit Mahal congratulated the staff and students on their success.

Master Tara Singh College: Students of MTSMC, Ludhiana, have also performed well in BCA 1 examination. Around 95 per cent of the students secured the first division. Isha topped the college by getting 77.75 per cent marks.

SPORTS

Tips for swimmers

If swimming is on your agenda this summer, take due care and precautionary measures lest you should land up with ear or sinus problems, necessitating umpteen visits to the family doctor. The same goes true for the children who opt for swimming to beat the sweltering heat.

In a survey carried out by Dr Manish Munjal, Professor in the ENT Department at Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) here, it was seen that the ear problems were far more common than sinus ailments, and that too more so in the under-12 age group, during the swimming season.

In case of beginners, the chlorinated water of swimming pools or dirty water of streams or ponds generally entered their nose and sinuses. This irritated the lining of the nose and sinuses with consequent sequel of violent sneezing, nasal discharge, varying from watery to purulent, and in some cases, full blown sinusitis with high grade fever, pain and headache, he says.

He emphasised that children usually attended the morning and evening shifts during their vacations, spending the maximum hours in the pool, thereby leading to retention of water in the deep part of the ear canal. This led to collection of white or black soft debris, mostly fungus in the canal, thereby causing heaviness, blocked ears and reduced hearing.

“The uneasiness or itching sensation made one scratch the ear canal vigorously with finger nails, ear buds, hair pins, keys, safety pins, cotton tipped sticks or toothpicks, anything one could lay one’s hands on, and small enough to be inserted inside the ear canal. The skin of the canal is thereby lacerated, and the fissures so created lead to excessive growth of bacteria, causing further itching and ear discharge, varying from watery to milky, to yellow to yellow green, depending on the severity of infection. The more adventurous even perforated their eardrum while cleaning,” he says.

His advises the regular swimmers to get ears checked by the specialists before the season to remove any wax since the wax might swell up with the entry of water in ear canal, thereby worsening the hearing.

— Kuldip Bhatia